St. James Infirmary Blues is a haunting old standard. This adaptation, performed by Cab Calloway, is featured in the Betty Boop short Snow White (1933) and is one of the most beautiful pieces of animated song this Falls Society Member has had the chance to experience.
The film is in the public domain and available for your viewing pleasure.
Calloway’s dance, as Koko the Clown (Oh god, a clown! For the love of all things good don’t eat me!), is a rotoscope animation by Roland Crandall (also known for his work on the Popeye cartoon), unsurpassed in its lifelike, yet terrifying, grace.
***
Folks, I’m goin’ down to St. James Infirmary,
See my baby there;
She’s stretched out on a long, white table,
So sweet, so cold, so fair.
Wherever she may be,
She can search this whole wide world over,
But she’ll never find another sweet man like me.
When I die, bury me in my straight-leg britches,
Put on a box-back coat and a Stetson hat,
Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain,
So you can let all the boys know I died standing pat.
An’ give me six crap shooting pall bearers,
Let a chorus girl sing me a song.
Put a red hot jazz band at the top of my head
So we can raise Hallelujah as we go along.
Folks, now that you have heard my story,
Say, boy, hand me another shot of that booze;
If anyone should ask you,
You just tell ’em I’ve got those St. James Infirmary blues.
***
If Charles Addams ever did animation, I think it might look like this.